Te Atamira’s School Holiday Programme
Te Atamira have curated a fun-filled arts and crafts programme for tamariki aged 5 – 13 these school holidays. There’s a Christmas programme, which will be held next Monday and Tuesday before the January programme kicks off on Tuesday, 6 January.
Led by the Arts Programme education team, there will be a range of multidisciplinary workshops, set to enhance, enthuse and inspire. The classes will be offered in two different age groups and feature a range of creative disciplines from dance and clay to fabric, painting, creating puppets and more.
It's the first time Kelly Roos will plan, run and lead the programme – in the past she’s worked on the after school offerings and has helped out for the holidays. She’s a primary school teacher and used to work at Arrowtown Museum, running their history education programmes. She’s also a member of Queenstown Art Society, where she’s exhibited her own paintings in the past. She believes that being creative during the holidays is just as important as getting outside.
“It’s proven that creativity is good for wellbeing and lots of kids will be spending time outside in summer, going on sports programmes, but it’s also just as beneficial to come and spend time doing different creative things, learning new skills, and finding things that interest you – creativity can open up doors to other things as well,” Roos says.
This summer the programme will revolve around the two exhibitions currently on display at Te Atamira, to “Get some real learning with real exhibitions that will be right in front of the kids.” One is Julia Holden’s exhibition, which features photographed portraits of people that she’s put clay on and painted.
“Lots of our workshops will be to do with portraits this summer and the kids creating different types of portraits.”
The other exhibition is the Notes In the Boarder, which is about migration with a theme of water and maps. There’ll be water incorporated into some of the arts and crafts as a result.
“Portraits and water are the two overarching themes. We also have visiting artists doing a weaving and binding workshop – that’s Kari Morseth, and then we have Ruby Wilkinson doing fabric dying. Then we have dance, drama, and music, alongside our visual arts stuff.”
There’s an array of different people who support the programme – from staff on the ground in the education team to visiting artists. The feedback from programmes past is always really positive, too, with children reporting that they love the different classes, trying new forms of art and hanging out with and making friends.
“It’s a great way for lots of different creative kids to come together and try out different things. There’s all sorts of different things to get involved with and we just like to encourage everyone to come and have fun and try something creative and enjoy time with people. It’s just a nice way to spend your holidays, coming to do something creative.”
The Christmas programme will include working on Christmas puppets, fabric scrap wreaths, watercolour ornaments and more. Te Atamira have also just announced their Term 1 Afterschool Programme, which will continue to offer a fun environment for creative learning, Mondays – Thursdays, from 3.30pm. Classes include The Art of Drawing and Painting, Creative Clay, and Mixed Media.
If you’d like more information on any of the programmes coming up at Te Atamira, and to book the kids in, head to teatamira.nz
